Record camera and video

Twine Version: SugarCube 2.36.1

Hi
Is there any way to record the Twine game remotely and save it in the cloud? I know Loom is the way to go, but I have no clue how to integrate it. And can I display the user’s camera on the Twine menu? Cause I want to record the camera and them playing the game simultaneously, but I want only a single video rather than 2 of them.

It seems like you are wanting essentially a “Let’s Play” style setup, ostensibly for beta testing so you can watch the transcript and the player’s reaction?

That’s well and good, however without knowing anything further, this isn’t something you’d necessarily want to build into the game/Twine package because for privacy and security in a wide release it’s not a good idea to have hooks into the player’s camera and desktop feed. I know there are games that do this sort of player-hardware snooping for real-time horror elements, but unless you know what you’re doing it’s a huge security risk for players.

There are people who had issues with IFComp recording text-only transcripts of games played online and making them privately available to the author. Webcam and desktop recording isn’t something you want to spring on any player not expecting it. When you release a game, you would need to include huge disclaimers of what the game is capable of.

That said, if you’re basically wanting to remote record testers playing the game, you should be able to coordinate with them to use separate capture software that they control and know when it is and is not running to facilitate this type of feedback. You might want to do it live over a Zoom call or some other video conferencing/desktop sharing solution that allows recording the feed. Even if you don’t sit with the player live, you’d schedule them and get everything set up to record how you want it and then let them play the game while the system records the conference.

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I’m sorry, what??

Yeah, one of my main testers likes to be on a live call during testing, because it’s easier to quickly pass feedback back and forth and have some extra context.

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IIRC, when you play a parser game online during the IFComp voting period, the transcript is recorded for the benefit of the author. I haven’t encountered this myself as I haven’t participated in IFComp, but I recall it being mentioned in a larger discussion of the attrition of new players. A great many of the transcripts consist of a few painful interactions before terminating prematurely. Stuff like:

 > Where am I?

Please try rephrasing your command.

 > I'd like to know how to play this game please.

Please try rephrasing your command.

[End of transcript]

Anyone: Please feel free to correct or elaborate as needed.

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Ohhhhh I thought he meant the transcripts weren’t shared, so an author set up their parser game to secretly stream the transcript to some receiver, so that the transcripts could be forcefully gathered.

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Right, sorry for being unclear. When IFComp parser games are played on the site, it automatically saves a transcript which is privately shared with the author. Some people got very upset over it.

This has reasons. A lot of people will click to see the first screen of text like perusing a dust-jacket at a book store - they may come back later or download to play offline. Some people likely do troll. Others are honestly not aware of how to operate a parser game. But many people are just window-shopping online.

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Chromebooks have a ScreenCast function that lets you do that. Automatic transcription, too.

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